21st November 2019

Sponsors

Speakers

Sir John Timpson

John Timpson was educated at Oundle and Nottingham University.

The Timpson family business was taken over in 1973, but 10 years later John led a £42m management buyout.In 1987 he sold the shoe shops and concentrated on building the shoe repairing and key cutting business.

Timpson now has over 1300 branches nationwide with a turnover of £195m. It is a private business wholly owned by John Timpson and his family. Timpson is the UK’s most active employer of people from prison.

Recently widowed, John was married to his wife Alex for 47 years. He has five children and John and his wife were foster carers for 31 years during which time they fostered 90 children.

He describes his business philosophy in his book, ‘Upside Down Management’ and has a weekly column in the Daily Telegraph.

In 2004 he was awarded the CBE for Services to the Retail Sector.

Ian Livingstone CBE

Ian Livingstone co-founded iconic games company Games Workshop with Steve Jackson in 1975, launchingDungeons & Dragonsin Europe. In 1982, he co-authoredTheWarlock of Firetop Mountain,the first title in theFighting Fantasygamebook series which has sold almost 20 million copies worldwide. When serving as Executive Chairman at Eidos, he launched global video games blockbusters includingLara Croft: Tomb Raider. Ian is an investor in 11 UK games companies, including The Secret Police for whom he acts as chairman.

11.45am: Keynote speakerDavid Scrivens from Clubfinance will give insight into the topical issues of the day.

11.55am: Special Debate 2: Deploying Rapid Growth CapitalWhilst Patient Capital is all the rage, even more exciting are the opportunities where you can get your return in less than 36 months - how fund managers do it.

Ian has been described as ‘one of the founding fathers of the UK games industry', and was the mastermind behind such iconic brands as Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. He will give an entertaining and visual account of his struggles as an entrepreneur in the 1970s when he co-founded Games Workshop and launched Dungeons & Dragons in Europe. From analogue to digital, he will give a brief history of computer games, past, present and future, detailing how ‘digital' has transformed customer habits and business models, expanding video games from a niche market to a $100 billion global entertainment industry, and will explain the challenges and opportunities of investing in the sector.